The raid in August 1840 by Penateka Comanches, led by war chief Buffalo Hump, on Victoria and the Port of Linnville, on Lavaca Bay, Texas, is said to be the the largest raid by American Indians on cities in U.S. history (Texas was at the time still a republic). Linnville was sacked and burned by the Comanches, and the port was never rebuilt. Citizens of Linnville escaped to safety by taking to small boats and a schooner in the waters off the bay, watching as their town was burned to the ground. 

The raid on Victoria and Linnville was one in a sequence of strikes and counter-strikes in Republic of Texas history that defined bitter relations between Comanches and Texans. See related markers link for information on each of these.

Events began with the Council House Fight in San Antonio, March 1840 in which Republic of Texas officials attempted to capture and take prisoner a large number of Comanche chiefs who had come to negotiate a peace treaty, killing them together with dozens of their family and followers.

The Comanche raid on Victoria and Linnville in August of 1840 was in revenge for the ambush at the Council House Fight. 

The Battle of Plum Creek, near Lockhart Texas, shortly after the raid on Linnville, was Texans' retaliation against Comanches in their retreat from Linnville. 

And finally, The Comanche Village Massacre in Octorber 1840, was revenge by Texans for the raid on Victoria and Linnville by striking Penateka Comanches in their homeland near what is now Colorado City.